Welcome
Reading was my first love. As an only child who moved around a lot, books were more than entertainment or escape. They were my companions, my comfort, my connection to the world. As an adult, books remain a centering force for me, whether I’m reading them, writing them, writing about them, interviewing other writers, or teaching about writing.
The Magpie is a collection of shiny objects about writing, creativity, hopes, and obsessions. This newsletter is mostly about books and all that go into them, but also about mothering, teaching, community, and the natural world. Since I started keeping one at age eight, my journal has been a place of exploration and intensity, of lists and favorite quotes, of ticket stubs and wildflowers. It is a place to remember and a place to dream.
This newsletter is called The Magpie because I love to collect…everything! My journals are full of leaves and mass cards, name-tags and photo strips. This newsletter is the digital version of collecting people, experiences, and weird facts that interest me. Profiles, interviews, book reviews, music, Often, it is at the intersection of these things where an idea sparks.
MFK Fischer once wrote: Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg until it is broken. This is how I imagine this newsletter—a kind of incubation, the messy internal process of building something beautiful. Thank you for joining me in this exploration.
Why subscribe?
Each week, I’ll send out a mini essay with an interview or an event highlight or book review. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. This way you’ll get every new edition of the newsletter sent directly to your inbox.
About Kelly
I am a writer, reader, teacher, and mother…but not only, and not always in that order. I started my writing career as a journalist and magazine editor before falling in love with the essay form. I went to Columbia University for my MFA, adjuncted everywhere in NY, and have worked as a library page, corporate legal assistant, bartender, and archive assistant. I owned a bookshop in rural Pennsylvania, and the documentary film, The Atomic States of America, based on my first book (Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
